


Un Alien

by almaasi



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Alien Abduction, Bickering, Ficlet, Fluff, Kidnapping, M/M, Oneshot, Post-Canon, Yes Really, but not really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-25
Updated: 2021-02-25
Packaged: 2021-03-15 16:01:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29686437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/almaasi/pseuds/almaasi
Summary: “I... think we have a problem.”“Dowe,” Garak replied, smiling as he adjusted a control.“Yes.” Julian straightened his pyjamas, affronted. “I’ve been abducted. Byaliens.”Garak chuckled. “Just one alien, my dear. I’m taking you somewhere nice.”
Relationships: Julian Bashir/Elim Garak
Comments: 18
Kudos: 140





	Un Alien

**Author's Note:**

> I attended a little Zoom Q&A session with [Dr. Una McCormack](https://twitter.com/unamccormack), and then she left while the rest of us enjoyed a timed 20-minute writing sprint. I was still eating breakfast, so once I'd picked a story idea and started writing, I had 13 minutes left. So another 800 words of this were written later, before and after a nap. But look! A thing! A SHORT thing! (Thank you to Una, Casey, and [the SCSC](https://www.sidcity.net/sid-city-social-club/) for making me get up at 06:35am, I guess.)
> 
> Beta'd by [inspiredzone](https://archiveofourown.org/users/inspiredzone), [anupalya](https://anupalya.tumblr.com/), and [ConceptaDecency](https://archiveofourown.org/users/conceptadecency)!

Julian stirred from a groggy sleep.

Heat prickled his skin... He pawed at his forehead with the back of his hand, then let his knuckles drag against his twitching right eye. “Hmm.”

“Good morning, Doctor.”

Julian arched his back against the pilot’s chair, finding it uncomfortable. He didn’t recall sitting in a—

Wait.

Wasn’t he in _bed_?

He sat bolt-upright, grasped the chair and the shuttle’s console, and looked around to get his bearings. Empty, black space showed through the viewscreen ahead, stars striping past. Tiny lights blipped and bleeped inside the dimmed cabin. Hot air blasted through the overhead vent.

Garak sat in the chair to Julian’s right, peering back in inscrutable interest.

“Garak,” Julian rasped. “Where are we? What happened? Did the medical transport get attacked, is that why we had to leave? Was there an emergency? Why am I still in my pyjamas—?” Julian glanced about again, then noticed Garak’s smile.

Julian’s voice chilled. “Garak...”

“Hm?”

“I... think we have a problem.”

“ _Do_ we,” Garak replied, smiling as he adjusted a control.

“Yes.” Julian straightened his pyjamas, affronted. “I’ve been abducted. By _aliens_.”

Garak chuckled at the back of his throat. “Just one alien, my dear. I’m taking you somewhere nice.”

“Nice?” Julian scowled. “Oh, like Cardassian snuff theatre was ‘nice’? Like the Bajorans’ virtual Orb Experience was ‘ _nice_ ’? No offense to you, Garak, but I’m really starting to question your definition of ‘nice’.”

“Trust me, Doctor. I think you’ll like this one.”

“You _know_ any sentence of yours starting with ‘trust me’ sounds suspicious. Chocolate biscuits dipped in hot tea are _nice_ ,” Julian muttered, as he leaned back, crossing his arms and lifting his bare feet to press onto the console’s edge. “Risa without the crowds is _nice_.”

“How dull your perceptions of pleasantry are.”

“Well, ‘nice’ occasionally has a dull connotation. Give me something quiet for once. I’m done with adventures.”

Garak laughed aloud, then gradually calmed, and shook his head. “Ahhh... _Now_ who’s the liar? Dear me.”

“I mean it. I’m done. I’ve been through plenty already. I don’t need you beaming me off a transport ship full of my esteemed colleagues, from a perfectly comfortable bed onto some – some – some stolen _shuttle_. You’ve kidnapped me... enough... times...” Julian trailed off as he dropped his feet to the metal floor and sat up. The ship had slowed out of warp and he'd noticed a familiar star system.

“By the way...” His head tilted, eyes caught on the view. Gingerly, he asked, “ _When_ you transported me out of bed – apparently having decided to slingshot us halfway across the quadrant at warp five _in the opposite direction I wanted to go_ before I woke up – what course did you set?”

Garak croaked a careless note. “I don’t know why you bother to ask, Doctor. Before the words ever left your mouth you’d calculated the answer. Tell me, where do you think we’re going?”

Julian bowed his head. He sighed, defeated and irritated, but couldn’t help smiling. “Garak...”

“Yes, Doctor?” Too chipper.

Julian gave his companion a soft, sidelong look. “When I said I missed home, I didn’t mean you needed to take me there this instant.”

“You said you missed your friends, Doctor. And I miss mine, too.”

“I said I hoped I’d see them again, _eventually_. Operative word there being ‘eventually’.”

“You told me you wanted familiarity for once, I recall. It’s not _adventure_ you’re done with, Doctor; you’ll never be _done_ with adventure. It’s the movement that drains you. You need a single place to call home again, no matter how unstable or dangerous. In truth... Moths, flames... Ah... The danger _is_ what draws you.”

“Well, yes, but— You didn’t even ask! We never talked about leaving! You didn’t even warn me so I could get dressed!”

“I didn’t wish to wake you. You’ve been ever so tired. Yet more reason to take a real break. And don’t worry: your colleagues have been updated on your whereabouts, and the reasons for your abrupt leave of absence... some of which were even true.”

Julian scoffed, pointedly radiating annoyance.

Garak went on, “Such a detour may have been a surprise to you, granted, but I’ve hardly removed you from a situation against your will. Unless I’m quite mistaken, Julian, you in fact _confided_ to me, almost in tears, how frustrated you were with the endless speeches and demonstrations you’ve had to give. It’s an unforgiving, never-ending performance. No wonder you’re exhausted.”

Julian tutted. “I wasn’t in tears. And I didn’t say I needed to bow out and _leave_.”

Garak gave him a soft look. “My dear...” He sighed. “ _Oh_ , my dear. If you had to speak every precise need of yours aloud before I dared take action, I would not have had the honour of accompanying you on your medical symposium tour this year. Nor would I have the honour of...” He started to smile. “Well.”

Julian couldn’t help but look away, unwilling to be swayed by those sparkly blue eyes.

“I must admit,” Garak said, “what convinced me that we had to take our leave was last night’s passing mention that you had a certain list of food cravings which, I quickly surmised, can only be satisfied in one place.”

“It wasn’t a shopping list! I only meant I’d – you know – appreciate a real glass of kanar someday.”

“Indeed. But, I do wonder, as you once made me so keen to wonder... why _can’t_ someday be today? Hm?” Garak offered a tender look, one Julian tried to frown at.

Alas, his frown was soon won over by a fond grin, as it had been so many times before.

Garak’s wide smile grew.

But Garak quickly looked back to the viewscreen. “I realise the method of granting your wishes might not be ideal,” he admitted, “so for that I apolo—”

“Don’t.” Julian reached over to touch the thick fabric covering Garak’s forearm. When Garak looked at him again, Julian slid his hand to hold the back of Garak’s knuckles. Julian let out a sigh. A smirk quirked at the corner of his lips, aching as emotion bounded through him, weighty and wonderful. “You don’t need to apologise... _this_ time.”

Garak lifted their hands and took them to his mouth to kiss, brushing lips to Julian’s knuckles. “I simply thought it was high time we went home.”

Julian lowered their joined hands to rest on his thigh, and looked ahead to the stars, now slowing as they neared a solar system.

‘Alien’ it might be, just as it was harsh, hot, and wasted, but to Julian, the planet where he’d finally laid down his heart was as familiar, friendly, and loved as the man sitting beside him.

Somewhere, not too far ahead, lay Cardassia Prime.

**{ ♥ }**

**Author's Note:**

> My beta anupalya said this gave her strong Little Achievements vibes, and she's not wrong. If you're here and you have somehow not looked at [Little Achievements](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26073979/chapters/63417001) yet, um?? Good news. Your ship is basically canon and I have video proof. **[Click for Actual Garashir!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Tq8zaSObWU&feature=emb_logo&ab_channel=SidCity)**
> 
> Friend anupalya was also concerned with the topic of this fic, and I realised it was for a good reason: I was feeling tired, burned out, and needed to rest. Thus, this fic is not illustrated, and I kept it back most of a week before posting it. I'm planning on doing more resting.
> 
> To you as well, dear space friends: please take a moment, a day, a week, or however long you need, and find ways to recharge. Find the post-canon Cardassia inside your soul and visit for awhile. Tend the land and give it time to let something new grow. ♥
> 
> Elmie x


End file.
